Pep Guardiola: Man City injury crisis no excuse for shock loss

Manchester Metropolis’s harm disaster proved pricey because the champions noticed a 32-game unbeaten Premier League run come to a stunning finish with a 2-1 loss at Bournemouth on Saturday, however supervisor Pep Guardiola most well-liked to not use accidents as an excuse.

The defeat dropped Metropolis to second spot, two factors behind Liverpool, who recovered to beat Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1.

“I do not know what would have occurred. I wish to inform you if these gamers [weren’t injured], we’d have received, however no person is aware of,” Guardiola informed reporters. “The blokes give every part, however not sufficient to compete towards that crew in that second.”

Metropolis’s loss got here on the heels of a midweek defeat at Tottenham Hotspur within the League Cup fourth spherical.

Guardiola stated his crew paid the worth for an absence of depth as Bournemouth received by targets from Antoine Semenyo and Evanilson.

“We could not match as much as the depth,” he stated. “All of the conditions with the lengthy balls, we could not win it.

“And when you do not win a majority of these balls to Semenyo and others, our central defenders and strikers should defend deeper.

“We’ve got gamers with rhythm and the opposite gamers have an absence of rhythm as a result of we couldn’t practice attributable to accidents. However we knew it.”

On Friday Guardiola stated he had urged his stars to play by ache “like Rafael Nadal” and feared he might need solely 11 senior gamers match to function within the Bournemouth sport.

Metropolis had been already lacking Jack Grealish, Rodri and Oscar Bobb and in his pregame interview Guardiola stated Rúben Dias and John Stones had been additionally “dominated out for a little bit little bit of very long time.”

Captain Kyle Walker was one in all a number of gamers who had not been anticipated to function on Saturday however began, whereas Kevin De Bruyne was again on the bench after a prolonged harm layoff.

“Kyle in 16 days did not practice one session with us, made an unimaginable effort,” Guardiola stated, including that a number of different gamers had “niggles.”

“[But] it isn’t nearly that,” the Metropolis boss added. “[Bournemouth] had been tough to play within the first half; the second half we had been a lot better.”

Walker stated if Metropolis had been lucky sufficient to have extra wholesome our bodies, a number of ailing gamers might need been rested.

“Most likely ideally, however we’re not in that place,” he stated. “We do not use that as an excuse, you need to give full credit score to Bournemouth.”

Metropolis have little time to recuperate as they head to Lisbon to play Sporting within the Champions League on Tuesday.

“It is the schedule that we have been dealt, no excuses,” Walker added.

Bournemouth’s victory was their first over Metropolis within the south-coast membership’s historical past and had Cherries followers on the Vitality Stadium cheekily chanting: “Can we play you each week?”

“I am more than happy. One factor is to beat Metropolis however one other is to play higher,” Bournemouth supervisor Andoni Iraola stated. “We performed with no worry, tried to press after we might and defend after we needed to.

” you need to be at your greatest degree [to beat a top team] and watch for them to not have their greatest day.”

Info from Reuters contributed to this report.